Amazon said an email instructing employees to delete TikTok from their phones was “sent in error” Friday, hours after the email was sent and widely reported by news outlets.
The company first told employees in an email on Friday that they must delete the TikTok app from phones they use to access their work email, citing “security risks.”
“Due to security risks, the TikTok app is no longer permitted on mobile devices that access Amazon email,” employees were told, according to a copy of the email tweeted by the New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz.
But after the email was reported, Amazon said in a statement that it was sent in error.
“This morning’s email to some of our employees was sent in error. There is no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTok,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
A TikTok representative told Business Insider in a statement that the company did not receive any communication from Amazon.
While Amazon in its email to employees did not specify why it was banning TikTok from work devices, it was likely due to the data that TikTok often collects when used. This data can then be potentially shared with the Chinese government TikTok denies it shares data with the Chinese government under China’s national intelligence law formulated in 2017.
Amazon “acted” — even if in error as we learned later — against TikTok at a time when the app is facing significant challenges in convincing the world that it is a safe app, that it has no connections with the Chinese government, and it does not pose any privacy or national security risk. However, few are convinced. India recently banned and blocked TikTok, along with 58 other Chinese apps, citing national security and privacy reasons. Although, India’s move came at a time when India and China were having a border dispute in Ladakh, with the Chinese army acting as an aggressor and trying to encroach on Indian land.
Other companies are scrutinizing the use of the app among employees. Wells Fargo said it told some workers who had installed TikTok on company-owned phones to delete the app. “Due to concerns about TikTok’s privacy and security controls and practices, and because corporate-owned devices should be used for company business only, we have directed those employees to remove the app from their devices,” a Wells Fargo spokeswoman said in a statement.
